Emma Coburn, right, and Shalaya Kipp celebrate after the women's 3000 meter steeplechase final at the U.S. Olympic athletics trials in Eugene, Ore., on June 29, 2012.

How unusual is it that two women from the same college track team make the same Olympics in the same event?

“I’ve never seen it before,” said CU head coach Mark Wetmore. “It’s pretty rare for a single collegian to make it. There were about five collegians, on the 2008 Beijing team. I’ve never seen two for the same event.”

Emma Coburn, left, and Shalaya Kipp, right background, of the University of Colorado, come out of the water pit during the preliminary rounds of the women's 3,000 meter steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., on Monday, June 25, 2012. Coburn and Kipp finished easily advanced to the next round.

EUGENE, Ore. — University of Colorado teammates Emma Coburn and Shalaya Kipp cruised through the preliminary rounds at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, qualifying for Friday’s final.

Coburn relaxed more in the final 800 meters, she said, finishing in 9 minutes, 43.19 seconds, with Kipp behind her in second in 9:46.17.

“This goal is always to make it through that first round, and do it as comfortably as possible, but I just wanted to do what I did today,” Coburn said. “But it’s really about Friday and getting ready for that.”

University of Colorado junior Emma Coburn, left, leads during the 3,000-meter steeplechase final at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

DES MOINES, Iowa — All season, Colorado’s Emma Coburn has run away from any of her competition in the steeplechase.

She held the world’s fastest team earlier this season and an NCAA-best after the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford on May 1, cruised through with wins at the Big 12 Conference meet and the NCAA preliminary round in Eugene, Ore., and then relaxed through her semifinal heat here Thursday.

But for the first time this season when she awoke, she felt butterflies in her stomach. Maybe it was the expectations of being a frontrunner, but she also expected — for the first time — a fight from someone: University of Virginia senior Stephanie Garcia.

“I hadn’t had that all year in the steeple,” said Coburn, who nevertheless earned her first NCAA title in 9 minutes, 41.14 seconds, despite warm conditions. “I wouldn’t have run that fast is she hadn’t been pushing me.”

She didn’t start pulling away from Garcia until about two laps remaining. “It was definitely a mental fight with four laps to go, three laps to go — and she was still there,” said Coburn, a junior. “I just had to tell myself, ‘relax, relax.’ But when it came down to it, I was getting myself ready for a big last 150 (meters).”

Joe Bosshard competes at this year's NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships on Nov. 22, 2010, in Terre Haute, Ind.

DES MOINES, Iowa — The start of the men’s 10,000 meter run at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships has been delayed again because of threatening weather.

The race — which includes University of Colorado redshirt sophomore Joe Bosshard, who finished an All-American sixth place last year in this event — was delayed last night after pouring rain and lightning first hit the track around 8:15 p.m. local time on Thursday. Meet officials eventually canceled all remaining events, leaving unfinished the 10,000, the two events in the men’s decathlon and a heat from the women’s 4×400-meter relay.

University of Colorado junior Emma Coburn competes during the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Drake Stadium at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday, June 9, 2011. Coburn advanced to Saturday's final by winning her heat in 10:00.43.

DES MOINES, Iowa — University of Colorado steeplechasers Emma Coburn and Shalaya Kipp easily advanced to Saturday’s 3,000-meter steeplechase final in yesterday’s qualifying rounds at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Coburn, who has the nation’s No. 1 collegiate time in 9:40.51 (a time that earlier tops in the world this season), won the second qualifying heat in 10 minutes, 0.43 seconds after leading most of the race. Kipp, a sophomore, finished in 10:02.09 in the first heat. Both are seeded second and third behind Virginia senior Stephanie Garcia.

“We’ve never raced head-to-head,” Coburn, a junior, said of Garcia. “I have my eye on her, but there are girls who can run low 9:50s and I need to be ready.”